St John's Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double-height Celtic Revival Church of Ireland built in 1886 to the designs of Henry John Fullerton; single nave with side-aisle, chancel, south transept and round tower. Located to the north of Kilmacrew Road, west of the junction with The Cut; adjacent to the rectory (HB17/12/009B).

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles; masonry coping with kneelers and moulded gable shoulders and moulded masonry apex finials throughout; exposed timber rafter ends; ogee moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. Squared masonry walling with dress stone surrounds and string course; buttressing and projected plinth. Leaded-lattice lights with coloured margin panes set into pointed-arched openings with chamfered long-and-short surrounds. Double-leaf diagonally sheeted timber door with wrought-iron strap hinges and ironmongery; set into pointed-arched opening with long-and-short surrounds; engaged polished granite half-columns to the jambs with moulded base and impost to moulded archivolt with hood moulded and foliated stops.

The principal elevation faces south; clerestory nave, four windows wide, abutted by lean-to side aisle which terminates in a gabled porch at left and larger gabled transept to right. Porch is abutted at west by round tower. Porch is flanked by buttresses; leaded trefoil window to the right cheek. The transept has plate-tracery pointed-arched window comprising paired lancet-arched windows with quatrefoil over; long-and-short surrounds and hood moulding; diminutive trefoil window over; single window to the right cheek. Monolithic tower rising above the ridge level of the nave with inclining lancet-arched loop holes. The upper portion comprises an ashlar pointed-arched rotund arcade with hood mouldings; moulded cornice supporting a conical spire with decorative banding embracing diminutive trefoil lights surmounted by wrought-iron finial.

The east gable has two lancet-arched windows with quatrefoil window and arrow-loop over; gable surmounted by apex finial; single-stage angle buttresses.

The north elevation is symmetrically arranged; four windows wide. Ladder storage to bottom right.

The west gable is abutted by an semi-octagonal chancel; hipped slated roof surmounted by finial cross; each facet framed by buttresses comprises a cusped pointed-arched window with hood mouldings with foliated stops. Right cheek abutted by a single-storey lean-to vestry comprising paired diminished windows to the north elevation; west gable comprises timber diagonally sheeted door with strap hinges; long-and-short chamfered-stopped surrounds; corbelled lintel. Left cheek is abutted by an angled projection with single diminished-in-scale window. Chimney with dress stone and moulded ashlar pot over the right gable pitch.

Setting

The church is set back from the road and partially screened from view by surrounding mature trees although, it sits elevated over the rural
setting with tower projecting above tree line. Access is via gabled ashlar piers with decorative wrought-iron gates; rubble masonry walls laid to courses bounding the site east. A short driveway leads directly to a car park which address the principal elevation. A secondary replica entrance accessing the rear car park is located further south; the rear access also serves the church hall; a modern T-shaped gable hall, pitch slate roof and roughcast rendered walling; uPVC windows; of no historic interest. To the east of the chancel is a path accessing the rectory (HB17/12/009B).

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: stone
Windows: Leaded lattice
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Prior to the erection of the Church of St. John the Evangelist Church, the Parish Church of Magherally was located at Magherally Old Church to the south-west of the current building (HB17/12/007C). The original parish church, now in ruins, was constructed in the mid-18th century and was used as a place of worship for Protestants in the area until it was replaced by the current church in the mid-1880s. The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1903-18) notes that the church was lying in ruins by the turn of the 20th century.

The foundation stone of the new church in Magherally was laid on 28th November 1885 by the Marquis of Downshire and the church, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, was completed and opened on 31 August 1887 (Irish Builder, p. 223; 329). The Gothic Revival church was first depicted on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map for the area which depicted it as a rectangular-shaped building with round tower at the south-west corner; the new church was constructed a short distance from Magherally rectory (HB17/12/007B), the path between the two buildings can be seen on the map.

Despite the construction of St. John’s Church in 1885-87, the building peculiarly does not appear in the valuation sources for the region. Further, the Annual Revisions initially valued Magherally Old Church and its graveyard at £12 in 1864, however despite its abandonment in the mid-1880s and subsequent ruin, the church and graveyard continued to be valued at £12 until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 whilst the Church of St. John the Evangelist was not included during the same period.

Examination of the first General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) further confuses matters as the valuation source records a Parish Church in the townland of Magherally valued at £48, however this church possessed a graveyard. The graveyard at Magherally Old Church remains the sole burial plot in the area and is utilised by the congregation of St. John’s Church. It is possible that the General Revaluation valued the new church and the graveyard as one record; however the lack of any alteration to the value of the church in the Annual Revisions makes this an unlikely theory. Peculiarly it appears that the Parish Church of St. John the Evangelist was not included in either the Annual Revisions or the subsequent General Revaluation for an unknown reason.

The Church of St. John the Evangelist is the most recent building in a long series of churches built in the parish of Magherally (Magherally parish itself dates back to the Medieval period and is first recorded in the 1306 Papal Taxation as ‘Analle’). Rankin states that prior to the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 the Rev. George Fortescue Reade of Magherally Old Church approached the Ecclesiastical Commissioners requesting a grant for construction of a new church at Magherally. The disestablishment interfered with the request and it was not until the 1880s that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners provided the funds (Rankin, p. 219).

The Celtic Revival church was designed by John Henry Fullerton (1844-1924), an Armagh-based architect who was appointed district architect to the Representative Church Body for the dioceses of Armagh, Derry and Down in 1880; fiercely religious, throughout his career Fullerton solely designed Anglican churches and residences for clergymen, and did not engage in contracts for either the Presbyterian or Roman Catholic Church. The builder contracted to carry out Fullerton’s design was ‘Finney’ of Belfast who provided an estimate construction cost of £2,000 (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Rankin states that during construction, materials from the roof of Magherally Old Church were used to construct the new roof, explaining why the former church now lacks its original slat roof. Despite the construction of the new church, attendance would have been very low; Atkinson notes that between 1834 and 1911 the Church of Ireland population of Magherally Parish was greatly reduced from 503 to only 207 individuals predominantly due to emigration. Prior to 1902 Magherally Parish Church was grouped with Dromara and Garvaghy, however in that year it was grouped with Annaclone (HB17/08/007) (Atkinson, p. 236; Rankin, pp 219-20).

The Church was listed in 1977; in that year Magherally and Annaclone, formerly a parochial group under the status of a Bishop’s curacy, were granted full Parochial status (Rankin).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19A – Annual Revisions 1864-1875
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19B – Annual Revisions 1876-1889
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19C – Annual Revisions 1889-1901
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19D – Annual Revisions 1902-1911
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/4/2 – Fist General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III Vol. 12 (1834)
10. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
11. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
12. First Survey Record – HB17/12/009 (1969)

Secondary Sources

1. Atkinson, E. D., ‘Dromore: An Ulster Diocese’ Dundalk: W. Tempest, Dundalgan Press, 1925.
2. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A double-height Gothic Celtic-Revival Church of Ireland built in 1886 to the designs of Henry John Fullerton. Its style, character and appearance survive, typical of church design from this period. Much detailing and fabric survive and it is of interest as part of a group with the rectory(HB17/12/009B) and the old church (HB17/12/009C) that it was built to replace. It is a good example of the type and of the work of a notable local architect.

General comments

This record was previously known as HB17/12/009